A Study of the Book of John
“That You May Believe”
Sermon # 11
“What Is Worship?”
John 4:19-23
George Barna the church statistician in his research has found some very interesting things concerning worship. He found that
•“half of all church going adults say that they did not experience God’s presence in the last year.
(THAT IS THEY DID NOT WORSHIP!)
•Two-thirds of the all church going adults cannot describe what worship is.
•Most Christians consider worship a secondary priority.
•A large majority think of worship as a Sunday morning event.” [George Barna. Seminar: Inward, Outward and Upward; Ministry that Transforms Lives. April 1999. p. 31]
What did you expect when you came here today? Many people come to church on Sunday for a time of spiritual refreshment. A time when the worries and concerns of the world, the struggle of the other six days of the week can be put aside and sense of peace can be regained. You have come to re-energize yourself, to gain strength from being in the presence of God with other believers and ready to go out into the world for another week.
Some of you came out of sense of duty. Coming to church is a part of your life and you just don’t feel right if you don’t do it. For some it is the one place in your life where everything does not seem to be in turmoil.
Some of you came because you like the feeling of community, of being a part of something bigger and better than yourself. You appreciate being a part of something where you know you will be accepted, warts and all.
Some of you have come for less noble reasons. Some of you are here because your life is in a mess and you think maybe being here will score points with God. Some of you are here solely due to the insistence of your parents, your spouse or your children.
Although some of those reasons have merit, none of them should be our reason to be in a worship service. There is a huge difference between attending church and coming to worship. We should have come here today quite simply to worship. Because you are a worshipper. “Everyday, all day long, in every place you worship. It is what you do. It’s who you are…. Should you for some reason choose not to give God what he desires, you’ll worship anyway – simply exchanging the Creator for something he created…. Worship is our response to what we value the most…. Whatever is worth the most to you is …. - what you worship…. So how do you know where and what you worship? It’s easy. You simply follow the trail of your time, your affection, your energy, your money and your allegiance. At the end of that trail you’ll find a throne; and whatever, or whomever is on that throne is what’s of highest value to you. On that throne is what you worship.” [Louie Giglio. The Air I Breathe. (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah, 2003) pp. 9-11]
In countless Churches in our country today congregations struggle with the question of what constitutes appropriate worship. Younger people want something contemporary while the older folks defend the traditional forms. So who is right?
This morning we are returning to the story of the Samaritan Woman at the well. Last time we looked at “Love That Knows No Barriers.” Jesus met the woman at the well in Sychar and reached out to her with a love that was great enough to reach over all the barriers in her life and lead her to faith in Him as her personal Savior. This morning we want to revisit this story to see what Jesus reveals to her as important truths about worship.
First, Worship Begins As A Response To Contact With The Living God (4:19-20)
"Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. (20) "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
First this Samaritan woman by the way she reacted to Jesus helps us to realize that worship has to do with real life. It is not some mystical interlude in an otherwise ordinary week of reality. As Jesus talked with the woman she has come under deep conviction of her sinful lifestyle. It is possible that her questions concerning worship are just an attempt to redirect the conversation to something that is not so uncomfortable. But it is also possible that her conviction has led her to realize that she has a need to get right with God. Since she perceives that Jesus is a prophet, it would only be natural to assume that he would be able to help her understand when, where and how she should approach God.
The Bible says it this way, (Colossians 1:16)
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created by him and for him.” “Simply put, you and I were made by Him and made for Him. You exist for one purpose alone – to reflect back to God His matchless glory.” [Giglio p. 16] If then the entire universe lives to worship God and you were made to worship God, then you need to know something, if you are not worshipping God you cannot be really living.
Not Only Does Worship Begin As A Response To Contact With The Living God but…
Secondly, Worship Is Not Limited To A Specific Location. (4:21)
“Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.”
Jesus says the time has now come when worship will no longer be associated with a place.
Pastor Tony Evans has said, “If you limit worship to where you are, the minute you leave that place of worship you will leave your attitude of worship behind like a crumpled-up church bulletin.”
Not Only Is Worship Not Limited To A Specific Location but…
Third, Worship Is Only As Valuable As Who And What It Is Based On. (4: 22) "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.”
First notice in verse twenty two that Jesus says, “You worship you know not what” and not “you know not whom.” It was good that they were worshipping the true God, yet it is tragic that they did not know what they were doing. The Samaritans accepted only the first five books of the Old Testament, and thus cut themselves off from much truth about the God they worshipped. A tragedy of our day is that can also be said that many modern worshippers “worship you know not what.” The demands of truth require that after everything is done to be gentle and sensitive and respectful of other people’s religious beliefs, the time eventually comes when you have to say, Only worship that is based on the Bible is true worship. It does matter what you believe and all roads most certainly do not lead to Heaven.
He is not saying that every Jew worshipped more acceptably than every Samaritan. But in principle at least the Jews had a more comprehen-sive knowledge of Him whom they worshipped than did the Samaritans. As Paul said in 2 Tim 1:12 “I know whom I have believed.”
Now the Lord shifts the attention of the Samaritan woman (and the reader) from the place of worship to the manner of worship. Not ‘where’ but ‘how’?
Not Only Is Worship Only As Valuable As Who And What It Is Based On but…
Fourth, Worship Is All About The Attitude Of The Heart. (4:23-24)
"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. (24) "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
First of all Jesus is saying that before He arrived on the scene their may have existed some reason for conjecture as to the proper place of worship, but His coming has put an end to the old ways. The coming of Jesus and his death upon the Cross has but an end to all the old ways of worship.
When Jesus died on the Cross the veil in the Temple was torn from top to bottom and it was at that moment that worship was changed forever.
From now on He says “true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” “Some have thought that “spirit” here refers to the Holy Spirit, but this seems unlikely. It is true that the Holy Spirit is involved in our worship….But this is not what Jesus is speaking of. He is surely referring to the human spirit and saying that true worship can never accomplished in what is merely outward.” [Leon Morris. Reflections On the Gospel of John. (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson pub., 2000) p.143]
Verse twenty-four says that acceptable worship is “in spirit and truth.” Some translations including the KJV read, “in spirit and in truth.” But in the original (Greek) there is only one “in,” the preposition is not repeated before “truth.” In other words Jesus is not saying there are two things we must do, worship in spirit and in truth. Instead it is one complex idea; we must worship in spirit and truth. The two go together and make up the one acceptable attitude. As John Piper states, “Together the words ‘spirit and truth’ means that real worship comes from the spirit within and is based on true views of God. Worship must have heart and worship must have head. Worship must engage your emotions and worship must engage your thoughts.”
[John Piper. “God Seeks People To Worship Him In Spirit and Truth.” April 8, 1984 www.desiringgod.org/Resource Library ]
Notice the word “must” in verse twenty four,
“….those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Jesus is not saying merely that it would be a good idea for people to worship this way. He is saying that it is the only acceptable way to worship Him. In the book of John there are three “must.” John 3:7 says “you must be born again”; John 3:14, says “the Son of Man must be lifted up”; and John 4:24 says, worshippers “must worship in spirit and truth.” These verses set forth the necessity for the new birth, the necessity of Christ’s death, and the necessity of true worship.
Does it astound you as it does me that verse twenty-four ends with the statement that the Father actually seeks individuals to worship Him.
Application
If Worship Is So Important Is There Any Way to Improve The Way We Go About It? I want to close this morning with four Suggestions of How to Offer God your best!
1. Make Your Worship God Centered
Worship is really not about you. Have you ever left a service with a smile on your face and said, “I was really blessed by today’s service. I got so much out of it!” or left the service, all grumpy saying, “Boy that was a waste of time. I didn’t like the music and I don’t know what the pastor was talking about.” It is because we have lost sight of something very important, Worship is not primarily for us. We may benefit from participating in public worship but it is not FOR us. Worship is for God and God alone. The question should not be, “What do I get out of worship?” but rather “What can I give to God.”
When we try to worship God with an attitude that is all about us, we find ourselves coming to the service focused on the music, or the instruments, or on who is doing the preaching. We come like Olympic judges ready to rate the event.
Sometimes it can be difficult to not focus on ourselves because we come so broken and worn down by life that we can see only our own need. We feel so empty and so shallow that we look only to how we can be helped by God. But in worship the aim is to so lose ourselves that we will be filled. For it is in worship where we forget ourselves we will be restored. It is true that we find ourselves re-energized by worship – but it is not the reason that we are there.
2. Prepare Your Heart, Beforehand.
All of us see the necessity of making physical preparations – we bathe, dress, put on deodorant, comb our hair and brush our teeth, and I am glad. Those are all good things. But the truth is that none of that will help you worship. But what have you done to prepare your spirit to worship. Louie Giglio says, “Most of my life, I thought that you went to church to worship. But now I see that the better approach is to go worshipping to church.” [Giglio. p. 99]
As a part of that determine that you are not going to arrive at the services so frustrated and bent out of shape that it is virtually impossible for you to worship.
3. Listen Carefully To What God Is Trying To Say To You Through The Message.
I make no claim to be the best preacher or
even one of the better preachers you will ever hear. But I will tell you this I work very hard every week, for every message, to have something to give you. Plan your week some other time. Come prepared to listen to what God has to say to you today.
4. Determine To Be A Participant And Not Just A Spectator.
We watch football games, we watch baseball games, we watch concerts, we can even watch church services on TV. So we come to church we come with the mindset that we can watch it happen here too.
Yet I want to challenge you today to try
something. I believe that if you will be more involved in the service. Listen to what the words that we are singing. Pray for those who lead the worship services. I believe that you will begin to see your sense of worship improve.
Worship is a verb. Worship isn’t something you watch, contrary to the thinking of many of us who attend church. Pastor D. James Kennedy defines what happens in most churches. “Most people thing of the church as a drama with the preacher as the chief actor, God as the prompter and the congregation as the critic. What is actually the case is that the congregation is the chief actor, the preacher is the prompter and God is the CRITIC!”
Louie Giglio in his book on worship entitled “The Air I Breathe” gives this excellent definition of worship.
“Worship is
Our response
Both personal and corporate
To God –
For who He is!
And what He has done!
Expressed in and by things we say
And the way we live.” [Giglio. p. 12]
Conclusion
We began this message with the statistics that 50% of Christians said that they did not experienced worship last year. But I wonder if that statistic is influenced by a false understanding of what worship is? The truth is that true worship is not measured by
•Your level of entertainment
•Your personal satisfaction
•Your level of comfort
In fact if you walked away from a worship service voicing criticism of what you did and did not like about that particular service it is fair to say you did not experience worship. If on the other hand you walk away from a worship service saying as the Psalmist (48:1) did, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised” then you probably experienced worship. In fact I think Christian author C.S. Lewis has it right when he states, “The perfect church service would be the one we were almost totally unaware of; our attention would have been on God.” [C.S. Lewis. Letters To Malcolm Chiefly On Prayer. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovick, 1964) p. 4]
“What Is Worship?”
John 4:19-23
First, Worship Begins As A _____________ To Contact With The Living God (4:19-20)
Secondly, Worship Is Not Limited To A Specific _______. (4:21)
Third, Worship Is Only As Valuable As Who And What It Is ____________ On. (4: 22)
Fourth, Worship Is All About The _______________ Of The Heart (4:23-24)
“….those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (v. 24)
“Worship is
______ response
Both personal and corporate
To _______ –
For who He is!
And what He has done!
Expressed in and by things we _______
And the way we ________.” [Louie Giglio. “The Air I Breathe”]
Application
•Make Your Worship God ____________
•Prepare Your __________, Beforehand.
•Listen Carefully To What God Is Trying To Say To You Through The _____________.
•Determine To Be A _________________ And Not Just A Spectator.
“The perfect church service would be the one we were almost totally unaware of; our attention would have been on God.” [C.S. Lewis. Letters To Malcolm Chiefly On Prayer.)
